Fixing Wrong USB Devices in Windows 7

If you experience issues with a USB device not being recognized under Windows 7, there might be a simple solution to solve this. For example the MSI USB 2.0 All IN 1 Card Reader aka MSI StarReader is recognized as eHome Infrared Receiver (USBCIR) using Windows 7. The device works great using Windows Vista or even the Windows 7 pre-release versions. Unfortunately, with the final Windows 7 the device just wonโ€™t work.

MSI USB 2.0 All IN 1 Card Reader A quick look into the Device Manager will show that the device is recognized as eHome Infrared Receiver (USBCIR). When connecting the first time Windows 7 wonโ€™t give any notice that the installation of the driver failed or that the device is not ready to use. It will simply not work.

Device Manager

This seems to be known problem, however, there is no need to wait for a Software Update from Microsoft. The solution is to manually choose the device.

  1. Start Device Manager
  2. Right-click the eHome Infrared Receiver (USBCIR) entry
  3. Select Update Driver Software
  4. Choose Browse my computer for driver software
  5. Choose Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer
  6. Make sure the Show compatible hardware box is checked
  7. Select the USB Composite Device and you are done

Show compatible hardware

After a few seconds the driver should be installed and the device should be ready.

Driver Software Installation

40 Comments

  1. RobertW

    Reply

    What a great hint! Success with Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit and 81-in-1 Card Reader from Conrad Electronics (Art.-Nr. 410037).

  2. Reply

    This article addressed that very important information that they make to the knowledge society. Took me time to read all the comments, but I really enjoyed the article. It proved to be Very helpful to me and I am sure to all the commenters here! It’s always nice when you can not only be informed, but also entertained! I’m sure you had fun writing this article.

  3. Reply

    THX, worked perfectly with "update 81 in one" card reader which includes a sim card slot.
    Most probably it is a Realtek RTS5161 Chip
    (RTS5161 (LQFP-128) [PID 0161] – USB 2.0 Card Reader Controller
    Multi-LUN Multi Controller, UDMA CF, SIM Card, Smart Card.) which has no reference on the Realtek website for an update driver for WIN 7.

  4. Valle

    Reply

    Thanks for your great trick, Andreas. It works great with Epraizer card reader and Windows 7 x86 ultimate.

  5. arthur

    Reply

    Many thanks this worked great; even for an old guy !I was referred to your site by the support department of a firm distributing a card reader affected by this problem.

  6. Richard

    Reply

    Thanks man – it’s people like you that make the internet great! Right now you are my hero!

  7. Lissa

    Reply

    I love Google … and I love this article! Easy peasy … fixed in seconds after hours of confusion .. THANKS BIG TIME! ๐Ÿ™‚

  8. Josh

    Reply

    THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!!! I bought a new 66-in-1 card reader for my Dell mini 10 netbook running Win 7 Pro… and was really annoyed to find it worked perfectly on my Vista Desktop computer, but not my little laptop! I am quite computer literate, and even I couldn’t figure out how to fix it without this article… and now it works ๐Ÿ˜€

  9. George

    Reply

    Thank you so much for this one! Was trying to fix it for hours, as it worked fine before, but just stop functioning.

    big thanks !

  10. DJA

    Reply

    Thank you very much. Now my Matsuyama cf782 card reader works perfectly on WIN7 Ultimate!!!

  11. Lee

    Reply

    Works great for me, been trying to make this work for a week and i gave up and i saw this. Thanks for sharing. You are the man.. ๐Ÿ™‚ keep it up.

  12. ecsmnef

    Reply

    The USB Composite Device disapeared i am using the WINDOWS 7 home Swedish

    I dรญd work for about 3 years now i can not find the driver

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